Giveaways at Vanilla Joy

http://www.vanillajoy.com

This is such a fun site. They have so many creative ideas for family fun. Head on over and check out this weeks giveaways. She has one for each day of the week so far. I would be happy with any of these items. Of course I love scrapbooking. :)

Our week off...

So this week is our week off of school, kinda. haha We are just doing some fun things. Today the kids played in the sprinklers and Meghan frosted cupcakes. They each had one while running in the sprinklers. Then they were able to play a bit on the swing. It was a little cooler today, only 100... hehe I can't wait until it cools off and we can be outside again! I am enjoying planning all those fall field trips and activities.

The other day we went to Sweet Tomatoes to have dinner and we saw another little boy there that we thought was about the same age as Kaden. He had just learned to walk though because his family was putting him down and making a big deal. :) Nathan finally asked someone how old he was, I believe they said almost one or just over one.. It was a month either way from his birthday. So he was about 6 months younger than Kaden, but he was just a tad taller than Kaden. So I decided today to see how tall he is and find an online growth chart to see where "they" say he is. He was in the 17th percentile for his age. He is just our little peanut. I knew he still looked tiny to me for a reason. :) I am guessing that he is taking after me on the slow growth early in life. My parents said I looked like a 2 year old going to kindergarten. I think they must be exaggerating just a little as I had to wait a year to go because of where my birthday fell. I was 5 going in and a month later turned 6.

Meghan is doing great. She is enjoying her week off but she is pretty good with school stuff too, she usually enjoys it. Yesterday when she went to bed she hugged my tummy and said "good night little girl". As cute as that is I am starting to be a little worried about her. She seems so positive the baby is a girl, she could be very disappointed. haha

Kaden is doing well also. I am glad he finally took off with eating. I guess he just didn't like baby food and I really think it had more to do with texture. He still doesn't like runny foods like applesauce. I have to remember though that he might like things that Meghan doesn't like. For example one day we gave him some cheeseburger and he really liked it, another time is was a pasta with the meat sauce. Those kinds of things Meghan won't eat. He is also saying new things all the time. I am pretty sure we are the only ones that would understand it, but it's cute. Just this week he has started saying bite, up, all gone and outside. I am still not catching if or what he is calling Meghan.

Here are a few pictures of the kids hanging out with Hootie. I think he will be on his way to his new family on Friday.

I will survive...

I thought this was funny and cute. :) I found it HERE

Originally written and produced by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris
Originally performed by Gloria Gaynor
Mercilessly altered with apologies by Natalie Criss

First I was afraid
I was petrified.
Kept thinking I could never teach
’Cause I’m not certified.
But we spent so many nights
Reteaching homework that was wrong.
I grew strong,
so now I teach my kids at home!
We study math
and outer space.
I just kept on despite the fear
with a big smile across my face.
I bought a set of Base Ten blocks.
I bought books with answer keys.
My parents think we’re nuts,
but they don’t even bother me

Come on, let’s go walk out the door.
We’re on the road now,
'cause we’re not home much anymore
My friends would frown and say we’d be unsocialized.
I heard one grumble
that I’d give up by July.
Oh no, not I!
I will survive!
As long as I know how to read
I know we’ll be alright.
I've got all my life to learn.
I've got energy to burn.
and I'll survive.
I will survive.

It took all the strength I had
not to fall apart.
Decided to attend
a play date at the local park,
and I met oh so many moms
who offered eagerly to help.
They used to cry.
Now they hold their heads up high,
and so do we!
My kids are cool!
They’re not those chained up little people
stuck inside at school.
So if you feel like dropping by
don't you expect us to be free
I'm spending my time learning
with my loving family!

There is a video on youtube also here.

Hootie is here!

Oh of the girls on my scrapbooking board started this little game. She bought Hootie and sent him to another of the families on the board. He brings the kids a little treat and they get to play with him and take him on some outings before he is sent on to visit the new family. He showed up to hang out at our retreat. Well today he showed up at our house. The kids got to open the box before bed. Here are a few pictures. :)

Here is Kaden digging right in, he went right for Hootie.




Here is Meghan with her treats. Hootie came from Kelci's house at the beach. She sent each of the kids a starfish and a sand dollar. Meghan was so excited! She loves them.





Here is Meghan getting a chance to give him a hug but Kaden wants him back. LOL

Big Day

Well some of you know, (mostly family) and some of you don't... We are going to have another baby in March! Today we went for the first ultra sound at 10.5 weeks. Meghan was very excited. She really wanted to know if it's a boy or girl. When she was talking about the baby or asking questions she said "she" all the time so I guess we know which she wants. haha Although she said either is fine with her. We saw and heard the heart beat (161 bpm) and then toward the end the baby started moving. That was a nice surprise. Here are a couple pictures. :)

Well hello there...

I seem to be slacking on the posts again. We haven't had a lot going on except boring everyday stuff. I have been getting school stuff together, I still have plenty of that to do. We school all year long but I still like to organize a little when everyone else is getting ready to go back to school. I asked Meghan what were some things she would like to learn about. She gave me a list of things and I am matching up unit studies that will work for them. We should have a lot of fun. I am also planning a NOT back to school week. We'll change things up and do all different things that week. I am still trying to think up activities and crafts for that.

We have gotten a lot done today so far. Nathan just left back to work from lunch. Before that we got bread baked, reading, writing and art done. (Meghan does art stuff all day long). Time to go and see what else we can do today.

Dinner tonight is shredded beef burritos and green chili casserole. YUM I am thinking about homemade ice cream. My ice cream machine core is in the freezer already waiting. hmmmm

Recent pages

Here are a few pages I have done recently. I lifted this one from my friend Shanna.



This is a sketch of Shanna's found
HERE



I used a sketch from Andrea's Blog for this one. She was also at the retreat. :)



And one more...

New Purse!

I have to tell you about my new purse. It's in my favorite colors. :) It's so cute and special and I love it! I bought it from my friend Kelci, she creates them all. She is the one in the glasses, in the retreat photo's. She is so fun and very creative. Look at mine and then check out all her others. This is her BLOG and she has an Etsy store where she sells the purses.

New pictures of the kids...

These first ones, Meghan was playing by hitting her head on the wall and saying ow. So Kaden thought it was funny and he started doing the same thing. He'd bump his head a little and then say oooowwwwww. Of course I told Meghan not to do that anymore, I don't want him doing that stuff all the time. I just had to get pictures first. :)







In these pictures Kaden is playing with Meghan's My Little Pony toys. They make music and spin, Kaden likes it!

Pages from the Retreat

I thought I would post some of the pages I completed at the retreat. I won't post them all because there are a lot. :) Thanks for looking!

Retreat!

I went away last weekend. I drove 5 hours by myself to California for a scrap booking retreat. I left on Friday and came back on Sunday. It was so much fun! We scrapped as much as we could and chatted and ate and hardly slept. It was so nice to hang out with my friends from my online scrapping board. I had such a good time and wish it was just a little longer, another day would have been nice. I did get 22 pages, 6 cards and a mini book done while I was there. I also won $20 to Michael's for being the only one to complete all of the challenges, (yes that is the way I choose to remember it instead of the only one to do the puzzle challenge). :)
Nathan and the kids did great! Nate even cleaned up the house a little so that was nice. Here are some pictures, and yes I did drive up and down this mountain all by myself. Talk about nerve racking! I was very proud of myself as this is the longest I have driven anywhere by myself.